The National Symphony Orchestra got an early start on summer Thursday night with Joshua Weilerstein conducting an evening of Americana in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The emphasis was on the “melting pot” of the country’s non-European folk music traditions, as Weilerstein put it during the set change in the second half.

Brother of cellist Alisa Weilerstein and son of violinist Donald Weilerstein, the conductor has a flourishing career in Europe. He was artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne the last time he led the NSO, in 2017, marking the JFK centennial in a similar kind of all-American program. Since last September he has served as music director of the Orchestre National de Lille.

William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony has become a local staple in recent years, having been under review with two different local ensembles in 2021 and 2022. French and English horn gave an incisive touch to the opening theme, symbolizing the link to Africa, a tune that later morphs into the spiritual “Hallelujah, Lord, I Been Down Into the Sea,” one of several traditional melodies Dawson quotes throughout the piece. Lively music alternated with further quotations of that opening “link” theme throughout the first movement.

Soft gong whooshes established an air of mystery in the second movement, followed by a doleful English horn solo. The piece turned toward a sort of funeral march, in solemn minor and with bell chimes. Woodwind solos and a lush section for solo string quartet added poignant contrasts to the overall sense of lament. The striking conclusion of the movement, a shimmering minor chord held and restruck over and over. was punctuated by the tense beat of the tom-tom.

The third movement proved the least convincing, with its excess of string tremolo sound, creating an agitation that never really went anywhere. Weilerstein had trouble establishing a throughline, seeming to focus on the energy created by sharply applied accents, without too much interest in shaping contours or establishing balance among sections.

The audience seemed unexpectedly small for a concert including George Gershwin’s evergreen Rhapsody in Blue, heard after intermission. Pianist Jon Kimura Parker returned to the NSO for the first time since 2017, when he played the same work, then with soon-to-be music director Gianandrea Noseda. In the symphonic arrangement by Ferde Grofé, Weilerstein felt more at ease with Gershwin’s vernacular style than Noseda did back then, expertly coordinating the NSO with Parker’s generous sense of rubato.

The iconic opening clarinet solo, colorful but a little reserved, got shown up by the dirty wah-wah sounds of later flourishes by trumpet and trombone. Parker played the daunting solo part with virtuosic and musical panache, keeping the rhythms vital and improvisatory in feel. At times his self-indulgence in accelerando and rallentando gestures bordered on excess. The NSO played the soaring tutti sections with crackling intensity.

Perhaps mindful that another long piece loomed, Parker offered a short but remarkably effective encore: a snappy version of Gershwin’s animated song “I Got Rhythm,” one of the composer’s most harmonically inventive.

Rounding out this mid-20th-century survey of attempts to meld jazz and classical music was Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. This piece felt the most coordinated and cohesive of the evening, even at fast tempos that pushed the edge of control from Weilerstein. Weilerstein is an all-body conductor, with jabs and circles of the arms sometimes at odds with shoulders hunching, legs leaping, and head snapping.

Solos across the orchestra shone in musicality and strength, not least principal horn player Abel Pereira on the opening of “Somewhere.” The “Mambo” movement sizzled, with idiomatic solos from trumpet and trombone. Tender flute and a halo of violins brought a tragic air to the Finale, with its tense evocation of a conflict halted temporarily but not resolved.

The program will be repeated 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. kennedy-center.org

3 Responses to “Weilerstein leads an evening of enjoyable Americana with NSO”

1. Posted May 31, 2025 at 9:29 am by Pat Myers

   Thanks for reviewing this concert — since I’m not seeing anything from TWP! (Is the decreased attendance reflected in other NSO performances as well? I know several people who just don’t want to set foot in the Kennedy Center anymore.)

2. Posted May 31, 2025 at 12:43 pm by Bill Kirchhoff

   I was there and as usual appreciate your review. I rather liked Weilerstein’s performance and smiled at your characterization of all-body conducting. I thought the orchestra sounded crisp and precise without loss of emotion.

   I think I prefer the smaller forces of Paul Whiteman’s Rhapsody in Blue except for the more lush moments of full strings. I have always been disappointed that the symphonic dances didn’t include “America” but the opening of “Somewhere” (violin & cello duet ? I couldn’t tell) did not fail to make me tear up.

3. Posted Jun 01, 2025 at 7:41 am by Thomas Bradley

   This reviewer for whatever reason really seemed to be at a different concert from myself. I thought Weilerstein’s conducting was first class with accuracy and emotional excellence. Simply the BEST performance of the Gershwin that I have ever heard. His command of the orchestra was total. The National Symphony performed as a top 5 orchestra. The musicianship is incredible. Unbelievable for such a young group of musicians. BRAVO

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